Such a hair cutting device is, e.g., known from the international patent application published as WO 2011/010246. Said patent application describes a hair cutting device for cutting hair near skin of a human or animal body part. An optical blade, embodying the functionality of the cutter unit, is dragged over the skin surface, while a reflector in the optical blade directs the hair cutting laser beam to the hair. The optical blade has a tapered end with a curved surface for exerting a local pressure on the skin surface and thereby manipulating the skin in an attempt to improve closeness and minimize skin irritation. Closeness is thereby defined as the length of the remaining stubbles after shaving. Irritation is caused by the hair cutting laser irradiating the skin instead of the hair. WO 2011/010246 further discloses the use of a skin stretcher, installed in front of the optical blade, for stretching the skin and making skin doming more predictable. Skin doming is the piling up of an amount of skin before the front surface of the optical blade when dragging the blade surface over the skin surface in the shaving direction. The aim of this skin manipulation is to ensure that the hair cutting light beam remains parallel to and above the skin surface.
One of the disadvantages of this known hair cutting device is that longer hairs may be trapped between the skin stretcher and the skin while the optical blade passes and will therefore be missed by the hair cutting laser beam. In addition, skin properties like flexibility and smoothness may vary from person to person, within persons on different body sites or positions and perhaps also from day to day, resulting in either reduced closeness or increased irritation.